diff --git a/src/dmd/frontend.d b/src/dmd/frontend.d
index 654516d54052..2c18b2654c02 100644
--- a/src/dmd/frontend.d
+++ b/src/dmd/frontend.d
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ import std.traits : isNarrowString;
 version (Windows) private enum sep = ";", exe = ".exe";
 version (Posix) private enum sep = ":", exe = "";
 
+shared static this()
+{
+    initDMD();
+}
+
 /*
 Initializes the global variables of the DMD compiler.
 This needs to be done $(I before) calling any function.
diff --git a/test/dub_package/frontend.d b/test/dub_package/frontend.d
index c21bb9bdde9c..33f0448651fa 100755
--- a/test/dub_package/frontend.d
+++ b/test/dub_package/frontend.d
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ void main()
     import dmd.frontend;
     import std.algorithm : each;
 
-    initDMD;
     findImportPaths.each!addImport;
 
     auto m = parseModule("test.d", q{
diff --git a/test/dub_package/frontend_file.d b/test/dub_package/frontend_file.d
index 76cba133f39e..59f5c3e29af4 100755
--- a/test/dub_package/frontend_file.d
+++ b/test/dub_package/frontend_file.d
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ void main()
     import std.file : remove, tempDir, fwrite = write;
     import std.path : buildPath;
 
-    initDMD;
     findImportPaths.each!addImport;
 
     auto fileName = tempDir.buildPath("d_frontend_test.d");